Common Pests

Brown Recluse Spiders are venomous and found in almost every home throughout Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky counties. They are light brown in color and the back piece of the adults’ bodies is very distinctively dark.

Applying extensive years of experience combined with employing the latest products, techniques, and methods taught us how to effectively treat for brown recluse spiders. We use different products and methods to control the problem: First, a pesticide dust is utilized to treat the habitat of brown recluse spiders, such as voids in walls, outlets and base boards. The potency lasts up to 8 month and affects the spiders nervous system on contact. Second, a liquid material serves to repel spiders and insects from treated areas. This product’s residual kills on contact for up to 3 months. Third, another liquid product is used for cracks, crevices, and other tight areas inside of the house that brown recluse spiders frequently squeeze through. This procedure maximizes exposure and kills for up to 30 days. Glue boards help monitor the effectiveness of treatment, kill the trapped spiders and let us know which direction they are traveling from. Our residential pest control supervisor experienced many cases in which he found dead brown recluse spiders in areas that have been treated the previous month.

Bed Bugs are very common in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. Nymphs are extremely small and translucent. Adults are still only about ¼ inch long and rusty red in color. Contrary to the popular believe that bed bugs are a sanitation issue, they can be found it even the cleanest household. They are not transmitting any diseases but they are feeding off blood and are capable of ingesting 7 times their body weight. Bed Bugs are attracted by the carbon dioxide that humans breath out. Bed Bugs do not have wings and they do not jump, they crawl slowly, predominately at night when people are sleeping. Because of that they feed at night and tend to stay close to the bed.

Fun facts about bed bugs:

• 1 in 5 Americans has experienced a bed bug infestation either first or second hand

• bed bug infestations are primary found in apartments, single-family homes, and hotels

Cockroaches are a very common nuisance in kitchens throughout Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. They pose a serious health threat by contaminating our food with bacteria that can cause dangerous illnesses. Male roaches have 2 pairs of wings, females have none or vestigial wings. This means that those wings are left-overs from evolution but do not have any function. Roaches have 6 legs, antennae and the females carry an egg case with nymphs. The three most common species in the United States are the German, American and brown-banded cockroach. The German roach is about half an inch and light brown in color. It usually invades a home through grocery bags or cardboard boxes. The American roach is bigger, measuring about 2 inches, and it is reddish brown in color.

Fun facts about cockroaches:

• roaches can stop breathing for 40 minutes

• roaches can survive for about a week without a head

• roaches can stay pregnant their entire live after mating once

Fleas are commonly found in yards and homes across Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. They are very small parasitic insects that have 6 legs, antennae, no wings, and are reddish-brown. Fleas feed on human and animal blood and are vectors for certain diseases. They can jump up to 8 feet high into the air. While the average life span of fleas is only about 100 days, females can produce between 400-500 eggs.

The house mouse is a rodent commonly found throughout Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. House mice are between 2.5 and 3.75 inches long, other species, such as the deer mouse can grow between 5 and 8 inches long. The color of mice vary, they can be gray, white, black or brown. Mice are furry, have whiskers and the back feet are close together. They are mainly night active animals and can cause a disturbance in attics, walls, and crawl spaces. Mice live approximately 3 years and produce roughly 150 young annually. They eat about 20 times daily, leave up to 100 droppings behind and mark their territory with urine. Mice are good at jumping, climbing, and swimming. In the fall, mice enter around 21 million houses in the U.S., all it takes for a mouse to access a home is a hole the size of a dime. Mice pose a serious health threat by carrying about 200 pathogens.

Crickets are common in the warm and moist climate of Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. They are flying and jumping insects that grow up to 2 inches long. The typical house cricket is yellowish brown in color, has 6 legs and antenna. The male makes a chirping sound that varies directly in frequency with the temperature. The lifespan of a cricket lays only between 6 and 8 weeks. Even though they are nocturnal, crickets are attracted to electrical light. If crickets enter the home, they are not only a nuisance because of their sound, but also because of their eating habits. While crickets feed on plants and other insects outside, they feed on fabric inside.

The house fly is a common nuisance in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. It dark gray in color, has 6 legs, wings and measures about ¼ inch. They can turn solid into liquid form for consumption and taste with their feet. Flies cause a health threat to humans because of the multitude of germs they carry.

Ladybugs, or Ladybird beetles, can be found in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. They are about 0.4 inches long, have 6 legs, antennae and have wings. Depending on the species, they can be red, orange, yellow, brown or black in color with dark spots.

Did you know that ladybugs use their feet to smell? Or that their legs secret a fluid when threatened? Asian Beetles belong to the family of Ladybugs. The Asian Lady Beetle is orange in color and has a W or M shaped black mark on the head. The white spots to the left and right of the face are larger than the ones on other Ladybugs. Asian Lady Beetles hibernate and while they are more common and plentiful then other types, both can infest homes when the weather becomes colder.

Wasps can be dangerous to everyone across Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. They are brown in color with yellow or red markings, they are long, slender and hairless. Wasps measure about ¾ of an inch, have 6 legs, wings, antennae, and a stinger. They are predatory in nature and have biting mouth parts. Food sources include nectar and insects. There are solitary, social and parasitic wasps. One popular species is called yellow jackets.

Carpenter bees are a huge concern for homeowners across Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. They yellow or black wood destroying insects that measure about 1 inch, have 6 legs, antennae, and wings. They do not live in colonies, adults hibernate and their food source consists of mainly nectar. Only the females have stingers, they are also the ones responsible for hollowing out a plant stem to build the nest.